Tag: balsamic vinegar

After my original plans for fish and rice were abruptly canceled by a lack of appropriate fish at Whole Foods, I figured I had to make something with the chicken in our fridge. And I knew I had a bunch of Yukon Gold- like potatoes, from my mom by way of Costco (or should that be from Costco, by way of my mom?) along with a gallon bag of green beans, gifted by the neighbors. I was going to go with a basic chicken in bread crumbs with boiled potatoes and quick-sautéed green beans. Then I watched Rachel Ray while I awaited the proper time to start so that dinner would be ready about the time Chris got home from Southfield. And RR was making fish, dredged in seasoned flour then pan-fried, and a browned-butter sauce to top the fish. I only saw the last 10 minutes so I had to get on-line to find the actual recipe and FYI, the mobile version of Food TV’s website is a pain in the arse. I gave up and went to the laptop*.

Dredge chicken strips in flour mixture and sauté, turning once, until cooked through. I had to do two batches to avoid overcrowding. Add more oil if necessary. Remove chicken from pan and cover to keep warm.
In pan, reduce heat to medium and add 3 tablespoons of butter. “Toast” the butter until the foam begins to turn a light brown color and the butter smells nutty. Do not burn!

Add shallots, stirring to coat. Add balsalmic vinegar to pan and increase heat to medium-high, scpraing the bottom of the pan to get up any sticky bits. Once the initial bubbling subsides, add broth and continue to cook at low boil until sauce is reduced. Optionally, whisk in 1 tablespoon butter combined with 1 tablespoon flour to thicken.

Serve potatoes and chicken with browned butter-balsamic sauce drizzled over top. Try not to eat all the best most garlicky, golden-brown potatoes yourself. Unless you are alone. In fact, this might be a good dish to make when you are all by yourself so there is no pressure to share.

Chicken, Potatotes and Nutty Yummy Buttery Balsamic Sauce

*This experience is pushing me further towards really wanting to purchase a tablet type computer so I can use the internet for recipes in the kitchen without having to make counter space for my 17inch widescreen laptop or trying to scroll through a recipe on a 2 inch phone screen. Something like an iPad but maybe a wee bit less pricey.

I’m curious to try this butter-balsamic sauce on some other foods like say, mashed potatoes or roasted root veggies or just lick it up right from the pan. Be generous with the balsamic- a lot will “burn off” leaving behind the sweet sweet nectar that balances perfectly with the nutty, deep earthy butter.

Remember those annoying commercials from the 90s; people singing the song and flapping their arms like chickens?
You don’t remember?

How about now?

Well, the product was not a big hit in the US however its still quite popular in Australia and the UK. And apparently you can get Beef Tonight and Sausage Tonight over in England. I don’t really remember it that well, in terms of ingredients but I seem to recall that it was a lot like pasta sauce that you poured over chicken instead of well, pasta. For reasons that will become apparent, I thought of this stuff while making dinner on Moday night.

I used the meat mallet to pound the chicken thin after removiing the tenders. I’ve decided to do this more often since it cooks a lot faster and evenly. Heavily season both sides of the chicken breasts with the Tuscan Seasoning. This stuff, from Spice Islands comes in an adjustable grinder. It has garlic, salt, red bell pepper, orange peel and some Italian-type spices so you could make your own or a reasonable approximation. I used it on medium grind and made sure I covered both sides completely.

Start a pot of water to boil for the spaghetti. I used rice spaghetti tonight due to my dietary restrictions. I had no idea what to expect but I didn’t tell Chris until he was eating it. We were both pleased with the pasta. You really could not tell the difference between it and regular wheat pasta. I have used low-carb pasta before and it was an awful sticky mess and tasted not good.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil over medium heat in a pan (preferablly not a non-stick one). Place your chicken breasts in the pan and don’t touch them! After 3-5 minutes, when you try to flip the chicken, it will lift off the pan easily. If its still stuck, its not ready and leave it be for 30 more seconds. Cook on the other side for an additional 3-5 minutes (same test applies). Remove chicken from pan and cover to keep warm.

Add 1 chopped garlic clove to the pan and let cook about 30 seconds. Then pour in just enough of the reserved water from the dried mushrooms to deglaze the pan. Turn the heat up slightly and add your mushrooms and onions. Saute for 3-4 minutes until onions turn translucent. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over the pan, about 2 teaspoons worth. Let the onions and mushrooms cook down until they are softened and golden brown. Optional: Make a spot in the middle and add another chopped clove of garlic at this point- let saute for 20 seconds. Pour the pasta sauce in to the pan and stir to combine. Strip the leaves from the rosemary sprigs and add them to the pan. Depending on how sauce-y you want it, you can add more of the mushroom water to thin it out. Turn the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 5 minutes.

Cook the pasta while you are sauteing the mushrooms and onions. Depending on the variety and size of the pasta, your cooking times will vary so adjust accordingly. Plan to drain the pasta while the sauce is simmering in the other pan. Just before serving, add the pasta to the sauce so it can absorb some of the tomato flavor.

To serve, top the pasta & sauce with the chicken and garnish with cheese and fresh basil if you’ve got it.

My Chicken Tonight

Notes

You can use any mushrooms or mushroom combination of course. I used what was on hand. Ideally, you want equal amounts of uncooked mushrooms and onions, if not more mushrooms.

Of course, use whatever pasta sauce you prefer also. Chris likes this Prego variety because it makes a good base for all kinds of things including pizza sauce (just add some tomato paste). I like it because its organic and not full of a bunch of junk like high-fructose corn syrup. It does have sugar but even homemade pasta sauce has sugar quite often. And again, you can easily enhance it depending on the requirements of the dish.

Chris and I, the balsamic vinegar-aholics, spent the weekend in Traverse City for a wedding. We had a great time between the wedding events, wine tasting, cherry-infused samplings, fudge, and the beautiful scenery of Northern Michigan.

We also ate at a fantastic little cafe, The Cook’s House. The subtitle on the restaurant’s awning is “local sustainable cuisine.” I want to move in with these people. Look for a later post with details about our meal.

On Sunday, before the wedding, we did a little shopping in downtown Traverse City. This place has changed a lot since my childhood but some stores are the same: the fudge shoppe in particular. One of the newer stores, Fustini’s Oils and Vinegars, opened within the last year or so, is a gourmet olive oil and vinegar shop. Set up much like an open wine tasting, the small storefront is lined with large barrels of olive oil on one side and vinegar on the other. A salesperson will suggest combinations and assist with mixing a little vinegar with oil in small paper cups. You can dip your finger in the cup or just throw back the tablespoon of flavor like a shot. Our first sample was Olive oil infused with mandarin orange mixed with an 18 year old balsamic vinegar. A little too sweet for both Chris and I. We next tried a Basil Olive Oil mixed with Oregano infused vinegar. Better but they sort of cancelled each other out. Third try was garlic olive oil mixed with Pear Vinegar, a white vinegar. Now that was a winner!

I’ve seen White Pear Balsamic Vinegar in the stores before so we just bought the garlic olive oil this time. It was very garlicky and will make a great dipping oil for bread too: mix some basil, cracked pepper and grated cheese together than sprinkle on top of the oil.

During our weekend, we visited three wineries and bought wine at each. We also sampled a lot of different cherry-themed products including mustards, barbeque sauce, salsa, preserves, fruit butters, chocolates and wine. We also had cherries in both the rehearsal dinner and the wedding reception meal. Despite this cherry overload, we came home with 5 or 6 jars of stuff in the car. I’m not even sure what all is in there, Chris was more cherry happy than me. We did not buy any cherry fruit wines though.

I made a command decision to tour the Old MIssion Peninsula and its wineries. I had a very good reason for this, my affinity for Winery #1:

My first experience with Bowers Harbor was a Michigan Food & Wine Festival at Meadowbrook several years ago. After sampling many wines that day, my mom ended up buying a whole case of Otis, the estate’s signature white blend. Fastforward to present day, Otis is still popular although its namesake, a Yellow Lab who served as official dog greeter at the vineyeard has since passed away. Bowers Harbor is a family-run winery that started as a family farm. With the passing of Otis, the winery welcomed Cooper, a Bernese Mountain Dog, who soon took on official greeter status and earned his own wine label. Cooper’s wine is a sweeter style than Otis and not quite to my taste.

On this trip, we bought a bottle of 2005 Riesling, an early harvest year so the wine is less sweet. This particular varietal is only available at the vineyard. We also picked up a jar of sun-dried tomato (cherry?) spread.

The second winery on our trip, CGT is the oldest and probably largest winery in Northern Michigan. Established in 1974, they sell wine under three labels, Chateau Grand Traverse, Grand Traverse Select and Traverse Bay Winery. The tasting room on Old Mission offers over 25 varietals for sampling as well as a number of wine-related goods from storage racks to crackers suited for wine and cheese parties. They also sell glasses, decanters and finally a wine aerator. We have been looking for one of these since a friend showed hers off last Christmas. Many a wine shop has disappointed us with perplexed looks and sad headshakes. On Sunday, I stumbled across the Ventar wine pourer with aerator. While not identical to the gadget we’d seen over the holidays, it was only $20 and did the job.

(Later in the day, while in another shop, we ran across the aerator we’d used before, marked at $70! Its cheaper on-line, the Vinturi aerator)

Besides a whole lot of Brownwood Farms products, a wine-food pairing guide, wine crackers and the aerator-pourer, we bought some wine here too!

2006 Chardonnay “Late Harvest” – A sweeter wine than usual, Late Harvest grapes are left on the vine to allow the sugar content to rise. Not quite as sweet as Ice Wines (where the grapes are left on til after the first frost), Chris actually liked this white wine so we decided to buy a bottle.

2005 Gamay Noir “Reserve” – Red wines are rare in NOrthern Michigan and quality reds are even harder to come by. Chris prefers reds so when he came across one that he liked, he bought 3 bottles of it! We had the first bottle last night. And we used our aerator too. THere is a distinctive difference- the aerator definitely helps soften the tannins. Now that I’ve had a full glass of this wine, I have to say I don’t love it. Perhaps with food, it will be better. I felt the pepper flavor came on too fast and blotted out the fruit flavors. First sip was very plummy but then the spice just overpowered everything. The wine won a Gold Medal at the 2008 Great Lakes Wine Judging.

The third and final winery visit wasn’t actually meant to be a wine tasting visit. We’d been given information that they had locally made cheese on site. They didn’t have any cheese there although they do make cheese at their Sutton’s Bay Farm, up in the Leelenau Peninsula. I sampled two wines here but Chris wasn’t allowed. For the second time in 3 months, he’d misplaced his ID (since found) and the host was reluctant to allow him samples without verifying his age. I had to show my ID and I did think it was a little strange to be so reluctant after seeing my age. Perhaps I should be flattered that he thought 33-year old me was dating someone under 21!

I tried 2 whites, the 2006 Sur Lie Chardonnay first. This is a non-oaked Chardonnay and it was very crisp. I thought it too metallic. It seems like a lot of Chardonnays I’ve had recently have had way too much oak so they are heavy and woody. But I took a chance on the the 2006 Arcturos Barrel-Aged Chardonnay and I really liked it. Very buttery and smooth with a nice caramel undertone but you could still taste the fruit. And I bought it, rounding out our wine buying for the day.

Before our stop at Fustini’s, we also visited Cherry Republic and Murdick’s Fudge in downtown Traverse City. And bought fudge and cherry related products, of course.

As you might notice from reading these posts, I use a lot of balsamic vinegar. I’ve got a few recipes in draft mode still that also use it. Chris and I really like balsamic vinegar. Especially the thicker, well-aged varieties. With the good stuff, you can just drizzle a little over some fresh strawberries for dessert.

We recently bought a bottle of 18-year old balsamic vinegar from Cherry Creek Winery at their tasting room in Cement City. Our discovery of the tasting room, in an old schoolhouse, was a complete accident. We were down in Adrian for a weekend of soaring but the weather wasn’t quite right that day. Since gas was still only in the $3.50/gallon range, we pulled out the Michigan Gazzeteer and went exploring.

We bought two bottles of wine, some Cherry Salsa (spicy!), and this bottle of vinegar. Its about 2/3rd gone now, since our visit the first weekend of May.
I just received an email this week from the proprietor at Cherry Creek. Turns out they lost their source for the 18 year old stuff (straight from Italy) and have been out of stock for a few weeks. I guess we got lucky! And now we can be even luckier- instead of 18-year old vinegar, they have balsamic vinegar that’s been aged 25 years!!

Now that I’ve told you about this amazing stuff, feel free to donate bottles to our vinegar cellar by contacting me via email.

The wines are decent too and very affordable. Besides the Schoolhouse Tasting Room in Cement City (near Brooklyn, home of the Michigan International Speedway) you can also visit the Vineyard itself (with tasting room) in Albion.